Mayday in Edinburgh is now well known for the march, rally and entertainment organised by the Edinburgh Mayday Committee. The approach of the committee is not to dwell in the past, but to celebrate our history whilst taking up the struggles of today.
Why do we celebrate the First of May as international workers day?
by Kevin Maguire
On Thursday May 1st 1890, hundreds of thousands of workers in countries across the world took part in strikes, demonstrations and meetings in a practical show of international solidarity.
The tactic of a general strike on Mayday had been adopted only two years earlier, in order to agitate for the eight-hour day, by the American Trade Union Congress.
The inaugural congress of the Second International, with Keir Hardie representing the Scottish miners, was held in Paris on July 14th 1889, the centenary of the French Revolution, and adopted a resolution calling on workers to 'display their solidarity simultaneously in all countries on a given day.'
As well as general anti-capitalist sentiment, Mayday took root in the US at the widespread revulsion surrounding the frame-up and murder of political activists, following a demonstration in Chicago, and was quickly adopted by workers around the world.
This point was not missed by the capitalists either, who, fearing a general uprising, sent troops onto the streets in the Austro-Hungarian empire. And, in the land of the free, Chicago's Commercial Club purchased a $2000 machine gun for the Illinois National Guard, to be used against strikers.
The USA and Canada still will not recognise Mayday.
The significance of these acts of international solidarity were to show each other that the working class was consciously united all over the world, in the hope that the workers could prevent the looming carnage of the 1914-18 war - which even in 1890 was expected by leading socialists as a natural child of imperialism.
Reclaim
Mayday's origins lay in a great struggle to change the system, and should be part of our diary. If you believe in the goal of a better world through socialism, join us in our events around the country, if you can't find anything happening locally - organise it.
Let's reclaim Mayday for international solidarity at a time when the racists and homophobes are once again being given national coverage with little or no rational response in the bourgeois media.
Let's make it an annual festival in which people in this country stand tall with our brothers and sisters around the world.
And be proud to be standing shoulder to shoulder with the millions of workers past, present and future who have, for over one hundred years, stood firm in the knowledge that the 'springtime' of humanity and reasoning gets nearer with every Mayday.